The invention is in the field of handling and mounting technology for sensitive components, in particular vehicle airbag pressure sensors which can be surface mounted. Such sensors have a contact-sensitive upper side which is formed by a gel covering over the actual semiconductor chip. In particular when such components are mounted on a printed circuit board, contact with the gel covering cannot always be prevented. However, contact may adversely affect the satisfactory functioning of such a component that is critical for safety, which cannot be tolerated in many applications.
A wide range of packages are known for sensitive electronic components, these packages being in particular in the form of blister packages or so-called strip packages. Such a strip package, known from International Patent Disclosure WO 97/04632, contains a closable depression in which the component can be stored protected against impacts. For this purpose, the side walls of the depression are in the form of shock-absorbing spring elements. The base point of the side walls is lower here than the bottom of the depression, as a result of which the component introduced into the depression is protected in the packaging strip against mechanical stresses and against contact by an upper covering foil.
However, this protection of the component is provided only during storage and/or transportation; at any rate the protection ends at the time at which the component has to be removed from the strip structure in order to be mounted or individually handled.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a handling and mounting protection device that overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices of this general type, which provides a reliable protection of the contact-sensitive upper side even during the individual handling and mounting of the components described at the beginning.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a handling and mounting protection device for a component having a contact-sensitive upper side and undercuts formed therein and disposed lower than the contact sensitive upper side. The handling and mounting protection device contains a cap shaped body formed of a covering layer for covering the contact-sensitive upper side. Locking arms protrude from the covering layer and have locking hooks which, in a state in which they are fitted onto the component, engage the undercuts such that even after the component has been mounted the locking hooks can still be released from the undercuts. Projections protrude from both sides of the covering layer in a region of the locking arms and extend in a plane of the covering layer.
The object is achieved according to the invention with a handling and mounting protection device for a component having a contact-sensitive upper side and a component housing with undercuts that are disposed lower than the upper side. The handling and mounting protection device is of a cap-shaped configuration and has a covering layer which covers the conductor-sensitive upper side and which has locking arms which extend from the covering layer and have locking hooks which, in the state in which they are fitted onto the component, engage behind the undercuts in such a way that even after the component has been mounted they can still be released from it.
An essential aspect of the invention is that the component is reliably protected even during individual handling, in that the individual cap-shaped protection device is assigned to it, preferably until the mounting is completely terminated. The protection device is formed here in such a way that it can still be removed from the component even after the mounting has been completed. As a result, the component is advantageously also protected at the premise of the customer up to the end of mounting and can still be easily connected to the component and released from it by a simple snap-type closure. The protection device is preferably manufactured as a plastic injection-molded part and can be recyclable by virtue of the use of thermoplastic.
A particularly preferred structural configuration of the handling and mounting protection device according to the invention provides for recesses in the material in the junction region between the locking hooks and the covering layer.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a handling and mounting protection device, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.